Agenda item

The Committee considered a report which detailed the financial position for the period April 2012 to March 2013.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council introduced the report and in doing so informed the Committee that, as highlighted in 2011/2012, Worcestershire Regulatory Services Joint Committee had been classified as a small relevant body by the Audit Commission as its income was less than £6.5 million.  As a result of this classification the requirement of the formal accounting statements for 2012/2013 was limited to the return as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council informed Members that the final position of savings in relation to revenue costs was £349,000.  Due to the level of underspend, as detailed on page 10 of the report, together with the financial cuts that each of the participating Councils were faced with in the future; officers had proposed that the Joint Committee approve the refund of the 2012/2013 savings of £349,000 back to each of the participating Councils in 2013/2014.  The total refund figure for each participating Council for 2013/2014 was detailed on page 11 of the report.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council informed Members that following the appointment of IDOX for the new ICT system a review of the costs included within the original business case had been undertaken to ensure that the relevant expenditure was allocated to the project.  Appendix 5 to the report detailed the anticipated expenditure for the one off costs associated with the implementation of the project.  As previously reported there was a saving of £282,000 from the costs originally included in the business case. 

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council drew Members attention to page 13 of the report, ‘Cost Apportionment’.  For the reasons, as detailed on page 13 of the report, it was proposed that the two elements, cost apportionment and revised budget, would be presented to the next meeting of the Joint Committee.

The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) responded to Councillor Mrs. L. Denham with regard to the savings made in respect of staff vacancies and the senior level post that had not been filled during the year.  The Head of WRS explained that the service was still going through transformation so had not recruited permanently; also it had proved difficult to backfill as the vacancies were quite specialist vacancies.   The Head of WRS highlighted to the Committee that WRS were still maintaining performance levels and that savings had not been made at the cost of service delivery.

RESOLVED:

(a)       that the financial position for the period April 2012 to March 2013, be noted;

(b)       that the refund of the 2012/2013 underspend of £349,000 to the participating Councils, to be allocated on the percentage basis as detailed in the Business Case 2010/2011.  The total of £349,000 to be repaid in 2013/2014, as set out below, be approved:

(c)        that the Annual Return to include the Accounting Statements for the Joint Committee for the period 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013, be approved; and

(d)       that the Internal Audit Manager’s assurance statement for the financial year 2012/2013, as set out in Appendix 4 to the report, be noted.